Before
leaving in the morning, I went on a snorkel excursion out to the coral reef,
which is about 5 miles off shore. I had been there about 30 years ago during
a winter break camping trip with some college buddies (more on that later).

Pennycamp Reef is the first reef I ever did any snorkeling or diving on (I've
lost track of the count of reefs I've dived since). If memory serves me correctly,
when I dived here in 1971, the reef looked a lot healthier than it looks now.
I think the coral has degraded, and the fish population has declined. Since
my digital camera isn't waterproof, I've got no pictures there.

Now
for a little history. In the winter of 1971, Fred Coker, Bill Field and I
drove from Lehigh University in frigid, dismal Bethlehem, PA to the warm,
sunny Florida Keys for about 10 days of camping. We traveled in Fred's aging
Datsun station wagon, departing shortly after Christmas. Driving straight
through non-stop except for food and sanitation breaks, it took us about 26
hours.

Our destination was Little Duck Key, which is a small island (200 yards
wide, 4/10ths of a mile long) on the southwest end of Seven Mile Bridge. At
the time, the island had no facilities and no official inhabitants. It did,
however, have lots of trees and a really nice beach. It also had one official
sign, reading "No Camping Or Overnight Parking", which was generally
disregarded by the 80 or so students, gypsies and other wandering souls that
took up at least temporary residence there. This being "the 60's"
(which actually lasted until about 1974), official pronouncements by inanimate
objects didn't carry a lot of weight. Although I must admit, that in that
age I did on occasion see individuals carry out extended and vehement arguments
with inanimate objects. That's another story.

This is where Bill, Fred and I camped for a number of days, along with lots
of other college refugees from the foul weather of the north.

What
with there being an official sign and all, the local police felt obliged to
come about every three or four days and insist everyone cease and desist their
illegal camping activities and move on. For me and a few other people, the
situation was remedied by swimming the quarter-mile or so to an even smaller
island to the northwest, which was not so inconveniently connected to a road
facilitating visits by the local police.

Why
am I digressing over 30 years, are you wondering? Well, as you can probably
figure out by now, I did stop there for a while and reminisce, as well as
get in another extended swim. I was very disappointed to find that many of
the trees had been removed. Even worse, cement ramadas, a paved parking lot,
and iron cooking grills had been installed in their stead.

So, although the beach was still nice, much of the original charm of the
island hd been removed (perhaps memory is sweeter than the original reality
- I don't know).

But that damned "No Camping" sign is still there.

After
my trip down Memory Lane at Little Duck Key, I continued on to Key West, arriving
there in the early evening. Since there is no camping in Key West itself,
I decided once again to treat myself to accommodations with electricity and
indoor plumbing. I found a delightful place called the Paradise Inn, very
close to downtown Key West, and managed to negotiate favorable rates (for
Key West, anyway).